FBI officials say no clear evidence links Trump to Russia, but the devil's in the details

Donald Trump has no direct ties to Vladimir Putin, FBI tells The New York Times — (Image credit: Getty Images)

If the Russian government is trying to insert chaos into the U.S. presidential election — as unidentified FBI officials tell The New York Times — it seems to be doing a pretty good job, especially regarding Russian meddling in the election. After FBI Director James Comey unexpectedly inserted himself in the presidential race to announce new emails potentially related to Hillary Clinton's email server, some Democrats urged him to be similarly forthcoming about any investigation into Donald Trump's alleged connections to Russia.

On Monday, several news outlets reported that Comey had opposed the U.S. publicly blaming Russia for meddling in the election out of concern that doing so a month away from the election would make the FBI seem partisan. Also, Slate disclosed a story several reporters and the FBI had been chasing about odd secret communications between a Trump Organization server and servers owned by Russia's powerful Kremlin-linked Alfa Bank. FBI officials tell The New York Times that the FBI "ultimately concluded that there could be an innocuous explanation, like a marketing email or spam, for the computer contacts."

Overall, the Times article appears to pour cold water on suggestions that Trump has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The FBI did open a wide-ranging investigation into Trump, his inner circle, and Russia, The New York Times reports, but "law enforcement officials say that none of the investigations so far have found any conclusive or direct link between Mr. Trump and the Russian government. And even the hacking into Democratic emails, FBI and intelligence officials now believe, was aimed at disrupting the presidential election rather than electing Mr. Trump." Trump, in this analysis, appears to be an unwitting beneficiary of Russian Democrat-hacking.

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The Russian government's "direct goal is not to support the election of Mr. Trump, as many Democrats have asserted, but rather to disrupt the integrity of the political system and undermine America's standing in the world more broadly," The Times reports, citing officials. At Mother Jones, David Corn reported on notes from a credible "former senior intelligence officer for a Western country who specialized in Russian counterintelligence" whose sources say the "Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting, and assisting Trump for at least 5 years," and that that Russian intelligence had "compromised" Trump during his visits to Moscow and could "blackmail him." You can read Corn's report at Mother Jones and the FBI account at The New York Times.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.